Cote des Blancs is good. My favorite of the moment is good old US-05. If you use liquid yeast, be sure to step it up to a big starter (using some sweet apple cider as the liquid).

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Dave

"This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption. Let us give praise to our Maker, and glory to His bounty, by learning about... BEER!" - Friar Tuck (Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves)

I've used a few. From Nottingham, to the WL English Cider to us-05. I think theres been a champaigne yeast in there somewhere along the line. I liked the WL English cider the best. It was clean, crisp and tart. Went all the way down to practically zero. I back sweeten to 08 or 10 and it makes a really nice cider.

I think I'm going to try Wyeast 4134 sake yeast in my 3 gallon cider batch coming up. I bought it to make sake but never got around to it so I figured I'd use it now before the viability is questionable.

I like either a champagne yeast or the Wyeast cider yeast. My experience is that yeast strain doesn't make nearly as much difference in cider as it does in beer. I've made and tasted ciders made with Belgian strains that can have a lot of character on beer, but in cider you'd never know it was a Belgian yeast.

I have used the Wyeast Cider Yeast several times and it works well. I have used champagne yeast as well. As expected the champagne yeast ends dry and bottles very well. The cider yeast leaves a lot more fruit flavor in my opinion but doesn't bottle as nicely. I haven't taken the step of using champagne yeast to bottle since I've been worried that it will eat up more sugar than the cider yeast. I just wait an extra month or so before enjoying.In either case make sure you pitch a lot of healthy yeast. It always seems to take a bit longer even with nutrient added for my ciders to get moving.

I like the idea of using Belgian yeast. I guess I never really thought about using "beer yeast" for cider. It makes a lot of sense if you are looking to add some other flavors with the yeast. I should try a small batch.

Belgian yeast used in cider doesn't taste anything like beer with Belgian yeast. Don't expect what you think you should expect. It won't happen.

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Dave

"This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption. Let us give praise to our Maker, and glory to His bounty, by learning about... BEER!" - Friar Tuck (Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves)

My experience is that yeast strain doesn't make nearly as much difference in cider as it does in beer. I've made and tasted ciders made with Belgian strains that can have a lot of character on beer, but in cider you'd never know it was a Belgian yeast.

I agree. I've tried many yeasts and the characteristics listed for yeasts, wine or beer, don't really apply when fermenting something different, like apple juice. Those characteristics must depend on the presence of certain sugars and other compounds in wort or grape must.

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Delmarva United Homebrewers - President by inverse coup - former president ousted himself.AHA Member since 2006BJCP Certified: B0958

What a coincidence. I was at a friends tonight who moved here from England and he was commenting that cider here was sweeter than cider in Britain. Do all the yeasts make a dry cider that is back sweetened or do some yeasts finish drier than others? I said I'd try a cider for him so this is a great thread to see active. I was going to use unpasteurized cider pressed fresh from the orchards down the road. Any apples that are better than others?

There is very little difference in residual sugars between yeast strains. Apple sugars are all simple and very fermentable, and the sugar content is low so there is no chance the alcohol content will max out as with wine or mead. Cidermakers trying to retain residual sweetness naturally do things contrary to yeast health in beer brewing - such as stripping out nutrients, underpitching yeast, and racking before fermentation is complete. Other than that, the only option for most is killing the yeast, sweetening, and force carbonating.

Fresh cider from down the road is the best place to start. Taste the sweet cider, the better it tastes, the better the finished product.

Some apples are better than others, but that is a complex topic and the best varieties aren't widely grown anymore. Try here for more information. http://www.ciderworkshop.com

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Delmarva United Homebrewers - President by inverse coup - former president ousted himself.AHA Member since 2006BJCP Certified: B0958